DIY Digest: On Target

My quick. quirky quandary-solver was inspired by the marbled bangles from Prabal Gurung's recent collection for Target...

...and also those awkward occasions when you unwittingly treat yourself to a fabulous nail varnish, only to find you never wear it, be it for work or spare-time related reasons (let's be honest, is there really such a thing as adequately quick-drying nail polish on a 5-minute time budget when you're always late by default?). Worse still is when you find yourself repeating the error enough times to find yourself with a mountain of unused, semi-congealed nail polishes you can't find time to use or bear to throw away, like I did! While they do make fabulous dressing table ornaments - especially if you arrange them in rainbow-spectrum-style - it's always more satisfying to put them to good use, and to a find a way to slip them on in the space of two seconds!

You will need

5-8 differently coloured nail varnishes. (it helps if they work as colour combinations)

Bangles, ideally silver but any colour will do, metal or plastic. I picked mine up for £2 on the sale from H & M

Clear car lacquer

Difficulty

Very easy

...Granted it's even easier to make a mess if you're not careful but picky, picky!

Time 

10 minutes

Nailing it!

 

DIY Digest: Viral Skulls

Once again, I'm blogging in diaristic form this week, charting the DIY inspiration sources that grabbed me, rather than grappling with the wider fashion world for across-the-board key trends. For the sake of variety,let me promise, in earnest, that this will be my last skull-related tutorial. Being a proud rock fan, skulls have always been something of a sartorial staple and still hold a fail-proof magnetic appeal for me, and while they continue to dominate the high street one must stay fresh and avoid getting stuck in a rut of clichés and  predictability.

On the other hand, skulls have seen something of an iconic regeneration in recent years, ditching the punk and pirate association-prone crossbones and coming into their own - on their own - as a distinguished emblem of Alexander McQueen and conceptual inspiration for Damien Hirst. The art historian Rudi Fuchs said of Hirst's work "The skull is out of this world, celestial almost. It proclaims victory over decay." It also had a fabulous set of cheekbones, and perfect teeth!

Is icon too strong a word? In this case, I think not. I've seen the term "icon" being used somewhat liberally in recent years, chiefly on subjects infinitely better suited to the title "famous face I'd like to slap" but the skull, of course, isn't one of them. It's dazzled in diamonds and appeared on many a fashion staple in seasons past, not least of all as a print on a scarf. Little surprise, then, that it's back to haunt us this season. Oh the humanity!

I have the above holiday snap to thank for my latest blog creation, taken in Bordeaux, a stunning city where architectural opulence, photo opportunities and DIY inspiration abound. I loved those boots but at €149 (that's about £120 or $195 to you and me, as of this entry) the price just wasn't right - when it could just as easily be about £26 back at home!

You will need

Black boots, preferably with a zip along the back. The ones I chose didn't have one so I just split them along the back and glued zips in

Sewing machine with a leather needle (needles which are dead easy to insert and available at all good haberdashers)

Grey thread

Silver gel pen

Light blue or grey fabric paint (make sure it's opaque)

Difficulty

Easy

Quick tip, though: When you're planning where you're going to do your machine embroidery don't go too far down or it'll become impossible to machine. I'd recommend a minimum of 8cm distance from the base of your zip.

Time

About 3 hours.

Total cost

The boots, thread and paint came to about £26 for mine - making them a saving of nearly £100!

How it's done

Use your gel pen to mark out where you want to put your twig patterns and skull. You might want to trace out a shape to make sure your skull motifs are the same, like the following one I used:

The beauty of using a gel pen is that they're wipe-clean so you don't have to worry if you make a mistake or can't, for whatever reason, cover all the lines you set out to cover with your thread.

Machine stitch your twig patterns in place. I find an effective way to do it is to drag your machine back and forth in a kind of narrow zigzagging motion until you've covered the relevant areas. You can also machine normal branch-like linear patterns but I find that much more time-consuming and painstaking.

Then, simply paint your skull on and you're done!

DIY Digest: Dead On Trend

Sugar skulls meet studs and sparkle.

Following Sunday's technical tour-de-force, I thought I'd share one of my easier outings. It's my first of the current season and while it wasn't part of the plan to start so late, I thought I'd tickle your creative tastebuds with a titbit of simple-yet-effective problem solving. I simulated the metallic rhinestone effect with bronze metallic paint and added a few colours into the mix, plus a few studs I happened top have lying around. It wasn't the first time I've seen it done but if you're relatively new to crafting or, perhaps haven't the confidence to take on some of my more ambitious projects, I'd definitely recommend it - from experience.

So, from my experience to yours...

You will need

A black t-shirt (mine cost £7) N.B. Choose one with a fairly thin, ideally translucent fabric

Bronze fabric paint - the type that comes in squeezy bottles. I find that fabric paint from pots is too runny

Green, silver and brown fabric paint - optional (ideally in potted form, like these)

The following print-out, A4 size:

...and a clear plastic surface to cover it, like a binder sleeve

How it's done

In a good light, simply place your skull printout in a clear sleeve and under your top, then trace it out with dots of bronze paint along the edge.

You can get some quite nice effects, including long spiky studs...

... and rounded rhinestones, especially if the paint you choose has a nice metallic sheen...

My version

Keep It Surreal

Katy Perry and Lana del Rey give it some lip from Alberto Guardini...

Behold, for I have returned! Apologies, readers - or whoever is left of you - my two, nay, three week blogging hiatus was definitely not part of the plan but an unfortunate array of logistics conspired. I spent this past working week snowed under at the office and the previous 10 days in La Belle France on holiday with the family (sadly sans internets). The handful of work-free days before that? I'd best describe them with an allusion to Greece. No, it's not to do with peplum ruffles being in full swing this season. It's not the hummus, nor their ability to sink the European economy, I mean, God! That's, like, so 2011! They're doing it in Spain now, with many a wicked whisper of them requiring a €150bn bailout to balance the books - well you're no one if they don't love you or hate you in Europe, honey! Nope, the Greek mythological figure in question here is Tantalus, a man whose sinful transgressions secured him an eternity of hunger and thirst, in a pool of perpetually ebbing water, under a permanently out-of-reach fruit tree branch. It's from that very tale that we get the word "tantalising," which is how I'd describe the 4 days in question. 4 work-free days, completely to myself, near the well-stocked fabric boutiques of Kenilworth, turned out not to be to myself at all, but lost to packing, travelling and losing an entire day to an unprecedented last-minute commitment and a sorry excuse for a rail network! Painfully frustrating though it was, I still believe that under no circumstances should art be rushed, yes, including an insanely competitive, machine-gun-speed blogging industry. Thus, I give you, a new entry!

I took on the lipstick heeled shoes worn by Katy Perry and Lana del Rey for this entry. I fancied the reconstructive challenge they presented and found them so deliciously resonant of the pseudo-iconographic visuals of both artists.

Also, you know how you always get that one nauseatingly photogenic friend who will, guaranteed, still look the very apex of beauty after being chased by wild boars through a tropical storm? For whom festivals, in fact any sort of tussle with the elements are no compromise to their flawless being? To whom, in passing, a male friend might remark "She'd even look amazing in a bin bag"? Well, is it just me does Lana look like she's sporting the very look in question here, on her head?

Of course, it's not a question of impossibly photogenic, so much as pure visual culture, darling! That headscarf, or whatever that unidentified abomination is, is actually part of a sartorial whole. Coupled with the smoky eyeliner and the demure mood set to black-and-white, it's a fine and delicate art in which paradigms from the 60s come together in a modern context to create a directional statement. Not many people I know can personally boast that!

The shoes are definitely a better call, from the del Rey school of capturing 60s-cool nostalgia. The surrealist overtones recall the golden age of youth culture. Think Andy Warhol's repeat prints, or perhaps the pop art printed shift dresses sold by graduates, Sally Tuffin and Marion Foale on Carnaby Street. Fashion, back then, as made with a disregard for couture's ivory tower status. As Mary Quant said, "Snobbery is out of fashion," (Fashion general ignorance: She didn't invent the mini skirt, fashion students did!) Cheap, novel fashion made by the young for the young took the place of watered down versions of film stars' and countesses' gowns. Okay, so this time around the paradigm has shifted back to square one, with me doing the copying. Granted, this coming season's looking more to the 90s than the 80s and 60s, though there are exceptions. It generally takes 2 decades for a phased-out trend to go from rubbish and passé to retro pastiche - probably because its new teen-market majority are too young to remember how dire it was the first time around!

You will need

Black stiletto heeled shoes

Isopon car body filler (All will be revealed)

Flat box or palette for mixing

Plane (this sort)

Red enamel paint

Fimo gold powder

Paintbrush

Clear lacquer

2 plastic carrier bags

Parcel tape

Scissors

 

Difficulty

 

Medium

The body filler is acrid, very quick drying and takes a bit of getting used to. Planing also requires some practice.

 

Time

About 2 and a half hours per shoe but most of that's spent waiting for layers to dry. 

 

The surreal thing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Digest: Foiled!

Another charming addition I thought I'd share with you - one that adds a £10 foil-finished jumper and some silver fabric paint, and no the result isn't £35, like the design that inspired it.

 Image: Riverisland.com

It was this impromptu urge to indulge that became me as I strolled through the shop earlier this weekend, before an increasingly well-used self-talk mantra that was to chine in my mind once again: "Wait for the sale!" before my creative call-to-arms; "I can make it at home for nothing!" My point? It comes at two different angles, for meandering as I was to the sale section, I recalled that I was comfortably replete in the silver fabric paint stakes and thought "All I need is a white jumper - surely that'd be bad tactics for them to put something as blatant as that in the sale?" Thankfully, how wrong I was. 10 minutes and one £10 pearlescent white jumper later, I knew exactly what I had to do to get a bona fide metallic foil effect.

You will need

Black and silver fabric paint - £3 each from Dylon

Fabric paintbrush - I'd recommend a coarse, bristly one

A white or cream jumper, bonus points if you can get one with a pearlescent "foil" finish, failing that, you can create a similar effect on the surface onto which you wish to paint, by investing in some pearlescent fabric paint

Time

I actually did time this one to the minute, well to the 30 minutes the whole process took me. Happy and glorious times!

Difficulty

Very easy

Needless to say, if you ask me!

How it's done

I find it helps to sketch your skull in place first with a pencil. Then mix in some black with your silver so that it contrasts with the background. Apply generous amounts of paint with each brush, sketching out some tiny leopard-style patterns in paint. You'll see that the pearlescent surface shines through to give it a metallic effect instead of the usual matte finish.

DIY Fest: Sweet sugar Kane

Difficulty

Medium-easy

Fiddly in places but generally straightforward.

Time

Mine took 15 and a half hours - thank God the design's only on one side!

And just to show you how it's done...

Chic Shout Out - all the fun of Fashion Love Affairs

This week I was going about my usual DIY blogging business of solving the world's fashion problems the crafty way when I happened upon Erickson Beamon's fabulous neon-charmed cuff and necklace.

Erickson Beamon Colour Me Crazy silver-plated Swarovski crystal necklace (see more Erickson Beamon)

Erickson Beamon Colour Me Crazy silver-plated Swarovski crystal cuff (see more erickson beamon bracelets)

As charming as these items were, with asking prices of £650 and £715 respectively, I - justifiably - couldn't be asked with the real McCoy. Imagine, then, my excitement when I fortuitously happened upon a DIY fashion solution, courtesy of  the Fashion Love Affairs blog. It's great to see DIY fashion growing as a fashion followers' shared interest and as a blogging genre. Turning fashion's audience from consumerist to creative is a way of life I'm proud to be part of, and it's heartening to see other bloggers share that vision. It also proved that a lot can happen in the space of just one week - even when you're working for 45 hours of it - how I love the wonder of modern technology!

Gigi Danielle of Fashion Love Affairs made the prestigious cut for International Fashion Bloggers' "Links à la mode" list with her DIY jewellery entry "In all my glittery goodness" (Envious much - wardrobe envy, that is. Whatever did you think I meant?) She gave a diamante and ribbon necklace some fashion resuscitation with a slick of neon acrylic paint and a sprinkle of glitter with gold stars to add a bit of sparkle and texture.



To find out how and what to get, here's the link again - you know what to do!

It's so easy to get the Erickson Beamon look with this method and a diamante necklace. Mix your neon painted stones with glitter-covered ones. Throw some silver chains into the mix. Give your accessory a right royal finish by adding some diamantés. Have fun, experiment and, of course, save yourself a fortune. Your wardrobe will thank you for it - you know it makes sense!

Oh Miu Miu's Stars!

Another brief D.I.Y. fashion bite for you this week, this entry's come somewhat later in the day than I would have liked. This is partially down to personal laziness and for that I'm giving myself a token slap on the back of the hand as we speak (as it were - or, perchance, as you read?). However, it was also a relatively late inspiration that spurred me on to attempt Miu Miu's painted snakeskin shoulder bag. The reason? As we all know, big prints are back. What's more, this baby grabbed me because it had an essence of handicrafts, itself, with hand-painted stars and a thin slick of blood red paint on choppy black snakeskin material.

Image: Net-a-porter

High fashion looked to craft in the 1970s, or the "me decade" as it was dubbed by Tom Wolfe. Zandra Rhodes and Ossie Clark were featured prominently in British Vogue, as well as Barbara Hulanicki's appliquéd works for her iconic Biba boutique. At the start of the decade, Bill Gibb, a designer known for his leather work, appliqué and elaborate knits, won the coveted 1970 designer of the year title. The do-it-yourself ethos  resonated at all fashion levels as a sartorial embodiment of self-expression. I've drawn this comparison in earlier entries with the subtly different paradigm of economising that D.I.Y. fashion signifies today. It's not to say that artistic expression - the free reign you have of knowing how to make anything you set your heart on - isn't another factor in the current popularity of crafty fashion projects. The aforementioned handbag I took on in this entry appeared to be a nod to fashion handicrafts of yesteryear, if only in the choice of medium - an incitement to be independent and create a look on a home-made personal level. Well, it was Vogue magazine's former editor-in-chief, Edna Woolman Chase who said "Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess" I like to think of said style as a second-hand faux snakeskin bag, a few fabric pains, a paintbrush, a palette knife and the merest smidgeon of creative ingenuity!

You will need

A dark-coloured snakeskin shoulder bag - mine cost £4.21 with postage and packing from Ebay.

Dylon fabric paint at £3/bottle at John Lewis and Hobbycraft in red (dark fabrics paint), white and black

Paint brush

Palette knife

Three simple steps to a stylish snakeskin statement piece

Use your paintbrush to cover your bag relatively thinly in red fabric paint - by that I mean with the  snakeskin texture clearly showing through and with dark background masked by a red tint but still visibly dark.

Use your palette knife to construct the straight shapes of your stars and to fill them in.

Go around the edges of your stars with your white fabric paint and palette knife. My tip would be to make sure your paint is as runny as possible, dip your palette knife ensuring that you coat the edges generously with paint and wipe the sides on the edge of your pain pot, so that you've only got paint on the edge of your knife. That's the best way to avoid smudging and unwanted mess. Also, if your white line runs slightly thin, as you streak along the edge of your star, so much the better - if you look closely, you'll see this happens on the original.

... and there you have it!

Day 5 with... me!

So, today it's my turn to take over on the DIY Bloggers Fashion Week with my creative ode to the Spring/Summer 2012 shows. The fashion statement in question? Like Carly, I chose to sartorially say it with flowers, as it were, and looked to London Fashion Week for my inspiration. My entry is a hand-crafted version of Matthew Williamson's floral printed blouse:

Image: Style.com

You will need

A white top or blouse (mine was a converted muumuu - £7, charity shop buy)

Screen printing kit (mine was by Artrain and cost about £3 from Ebay)

Iron and ironing board

Lots of plastic carrier bags

Sewing pins

Computer - with Photoshop installed - and a printer

Tissues

Water for rinsing brushes, also a tub of water for soaking and washing screens after use

Paintbrushes - ideally with a small, fine tip

Metal 30cm ruler

Palette knife

Fabric paints in the following colours(I recommend Pebeo opaque fabric paints, £3.99 at Hobbycraft and worth it because they're not runny like many other fabric paints ):

Other fabric paint colours you'll need, included with the screen printing kit, are:

Time

About 1-1.5 hours to trace each screen.

About 12-15 hours for screen printing/ blending/ linear pattern painting

About 30 minutes for ironing and preparation

Difficulty

Very Hard

Don't be put off but I found this a tricky one and I learnt quite a bit on the job. It might have been down to my choice of equipment (the method in my madness was to avoid forking out £50-80 for a professional screen printing kit and not having access to a printing studio - unless you count my bedroom!) A word of warning - screen printing's a very messy business so take extra care to protect clothes and furniture!

The Video Tutorial

Result!